Two issues among many immediately raise their ugly heads when I think of the senseless deaths of two illegal immigrants near La Joya, Texas. The first is that the Texas Department of Public Safety thinks it knows more about stopping drug loads, which this was not, than the Border Patrol. The Border Patrol, mandated by Congress in 1924, has a set of professional procedures that all of its agents closely must follow or face the consequences. Such procedures do not include shooting out the tires of a suspected drug smuggler from a helicopter. If the federal agency trained to intercept drug smugglers does not have a shoot-from-the-helicopter policy, why would the Texas Department of Public Safety?

Second-and there really is a much longer list here-why would the Texas Rangers be called in to investigate this tragic shooting? If anyone knows Texas history, they will remember that the Texas Rangers were initially disbanded in the 1920s for systematic racist killings of hundreds of Mexicans and Mexican Americans along the Texas border. Then there is the 1960’s case brought against Texas Ranger Captain Allee, a case so egregious against border migrant farm workers attempting to improve their wages and working conditions that it is a landmark to the brutality and incompetence of Texas Rangers. There are much more recent cases demonstrating this same trend. The Texas Rangers have no credibility along the border

The Border Patrol should be left to what it does best, which is guard the border and interdict smugglers. This also means the Texas Department of Public Safety troopers should do what they do best, which does not include interdicting drug loads along the Texas border. As for the Texas Rangers? Let their institutional history be a guide to the wisdom of allowing this law enforcement agency to investigate any misdeeds against Latinos by law enforcers in other agencies.